A Week Later

A week later, I said to a friend: I don't
think I could ever write about it.
Maybe in a year I could write something.
There is something in me maybe someday
to be written; now it is folded, and folded,
and folded, like a note in school. And in my dream
someone was playing jacks, and in the air there was a
huge, thrown, tilted jack
on fire. And when I woke up, I found myself
counting the days since I had last seen
my husband-only two years, and some weeks,
and hours. We had signed the papers and come down to the
ground floor of the Chrysler Building,
the intact beauty of its lobby around us
like a king's tomb, on the ceiling the little
painted plane, in the mural, flying. And it
entered my strictured heart, this morning,
slightly, shyly as if warily,
untamed, a greater sense of the sweetness
and plenty of his ongoing life,
unknown to me, unseen by me,
unheard, untouched-but known, seen,
heard, touched. And it came to me,
for moments at a time, moment after moment,
to be glad for him that he is with the one
he feels was meant for him. And I thought of my
mother, minutes from her death, eighty-five
years from her birth, the almost warbler
bones of her shoulder under my hand, the
eggshell skull, as she lay in some peace
in the clean sheets, and I could tell her the best
of my poor, partial love, I could sing her
out with it, I saw the luck
and luxury of that hour.

-Sharon Olds

Commentary
This poem is like a sequel to Olds' poem 'The End'. In that poem, Olds is discussing about the divorce she and her husband will be having. She was still in love with her husband, and she was afraid that her children will react badly to it. In this poem, the divorce has happened and all papers have been signed. Since she really didn't want the divorce, going through it has been hard on Olds. She speaks of not being able to really write about it and how it she has kept the emotions inside. She describes the building where the divorce took place and speaks of it as a beautiful tomb. I guess it would make sense since a tomb is where someone is laid to rest. In this case, her divorce is what is being laid to rest. Even though she is sad about the divorce, she is glad that her ex-husband can be with someone who he was meant to be with. Her ex-husband's love was clearly very important to her. As she speaks of her mother's death, Olds tells about how she used to talk to her mother about the partial love life. I think that Olds knew that the marriage wasn't going to last, yet she still loved her husband. It doesn't speak of him being a bad or good husband, but Olds was much in love with him. In the poem 'The End', Olds was going through some serious sadness. Now that the divorce is finalized, she can begin healing and moving on. A divorce can be a pretty upsetting thing to go through, especially if you still love the person. In Olds' case, she loved her husband enough to go through the divorce and let him be with his true love. It takes a lot of heart and strength to do that. Based off her poems and background, Olds seems like a strong person, but even the sadness of love ending gets to her.